Dr. Anthony Fauci brazenly lied to Senator Rand Paul, MD, when questioned about preexisting immunity to COVID-19, that some people have from coronavirus common colds. Existence of such cross-reactivity was not in doubt and was acknowledged by Dr. Fauci earlier. But on Wednesday, September 23, Dr. Fauci said “there was a study that recently came out that preexisting immunity to coronaviruses that are common cold do not cross-react with the covid-19”.
He referred to the study No SARS-CoV-2 neutralization by intravenous immunoglobulins produced from plasma collected before the 2020 pandemic, Schwaiger et al. / Baxter AG, September 17, as confirmed by his office.
This study made an exactly opposite statement: “antibody binding assays have shown some cross-reactivity between different HCoVs [seasonal human coronaviruses] and SARS-CoV-2”. The study concluded that “currently available IVIGs [Intravenous immunoglobulins] can therefore not be expected to afford protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection” – another well-known fact, not controverting the existence and significance of the cross-reactivity.
This study was produced by employees of Baxter AG, influenza vaccines maker, which is developing a super-vaccine intended to be effective against a broad range of zoonotic coronaviruses.
Dr. Fauci expected that the fake news media would take his word and not read the paper. The FNM did not disappoint him and hardly surprised anybody else.
Cross-reactivity through T cells response is well known. T cells memory is a long-lasting effect. The role of antibodies to coronaviruses HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU1 (causing some common colds) in fighting off SARS-CoV-2 is less clear. These antibodies are much less durable than T cells memory. The social distancing measures have probably all but eliminated circulation of common colds, and we have no or almost no antibodies to OC43/HKU1. If they helped to protect some people against SARS-CoV-2 in February – May of this, we do not have this help now.
Humans do not live in clamshells. Multi-month lockdowns and extreme anti-infections measures are expected to negatively impact our immunity response.
Senator Rand Paul also talked about Sweden. Sweden has too high COVID-19 mortality, probably because Sweden did not use HCQ.